Life After: The Complete Series

by Julie Hall

  It advanced on me, slashing at the air with its deadly claws. I was too preoccupied dodging the sharp objects to notice much of what else was going on around me. That is, until I narrowly missed getting run over by my own family’s vehicle as is took off down the drive. Rather than smashing into the car, as I expected it to do, the demon jumped out of harm’s way as well, stumbling as if knocked over by something unseen.

  The momentary reprieve gave me a glimpse of the larger fight. Logan had managed to kill the first demon he’d fought, but now he battled two at a time. And although he was holding his own, he was still outnumbered.

  Bear exposed his teeth and growled from the front yard, unseen by the creatures we battled. I was glad he was somewhere safe. He had no place in a fight like this.

  The dragon and its rider surveyed the fight from their lofty perch, content to let the demons do their dirty work for the moment.

  My big mistake was turning to check on the car as it drove past me.

  A punch to my gut sent me flying. My uncovered head snapped back and struck the rain-soaked asphalt. I hadn’t had time to grab my helmet before running into the fray. The crushing weight on my chest, barring me from breathing, indicated I’d gone down with the demon that struck me. My vision was blurred grays and blacks. My hands were empty. Where was my sword?

  Temporarily blind, I brought my palms up and pushed in vain against the weight on top of me. Remembering the wound I’d inflicted, I punched the area I thought might be injured. My right hand found purchase in something soft and squishy. The demon screamed its high-pitched wail, and putrid-smelling moist air blasted me in the face. Something sharp pierced my side and I cried out.

  A growl as loud as a trumpet blast shook the very air around me. The sound was deeper than a demon’s usual screech, but what it lacked in pitch it made up for in decibel. I vaguely wondered if my ears bled.

  Dang.

  Where were noise-dampening angels when you needed them?

  The weight above me was jerked off and I took a full breath of rain-soaked air. With the return of oxygen, my vision began to clear. I scanned the asphalt for my discarded sword, the world still hazy from the rain, frantic to help Logan. He must have somehow pulled the huge demon off me.

  I forced myself to all fours when a bundle of forms collided not three feet from where I crawled. The ground quaked with the force of their weight. I gaped.

  A golden paw, tipped with what had to be at least six-inch claws, batted at hardened demon flesh. Black ichor dripped from several wounds on the demon’s body—wounds my sword hadn’t inflicted and which looked suspiciously like claw marks. The furred beast lumbered up on two feet and let out another hair-raising growl before opening its giant mouth and chomping down on the flesh under its opponent’s jaw, ripping a large chunk of it away, then spitting the clump to the ground.

  Ew—and mad respect at the same time.

  The demon’s mutilated and lifeless face reflected what might have been shock or horror before its body slammed to the ground and disappeared into smoke and ash.

  Still on my hands and knees, I looked up at the grisly beast above. The demon’s black fluids mixed with its matted pelt. I stared at an overgrown golden bear—at least, that’s what I thought it was. Its bulk was easily equal to a full-size SUV. The dark claws protruding from its paws were elongated to an almost cartoonish length.

  The creature sank to all fours, drawing my attention to its muzzle. Its jowls pulled back in what might have been a smile. A macabre one, considering it still had some demon flesh stuck between its teeth, but a smile nonetheless.

  What the what?

  “Audrey!”

  The shout jerked my attention to the side in time to see Logan run toward me even as the dragon and Morgan took flight. The rest of the demons were gone.

  When he reached me, Logan hauled me to my feet. “They’re going after your family,” he yelled over the rain.

  Despite the hit I’d taken to my noggin, my brain clicked back into high gear. My eyes snapped to the dragon gaining elevation and distance. “How are we going to follow?” I turned in a frantic circle.

  Logan handed me my missing sword, grabbed me by the shoulders, and pushed me forward. “Get on. He’ll get us there.”

  The only thing in front of us was the giant, demon-blood-covered bear.

  The beast suddenly made me remember my dog. “Bear! Is he okay? Where is he?” My heart dipped and plummeted to my stomach. I looked around wildly. Bear was just a little thing compared to the demons. If one got hold of him while we fought, they’d have broken him in two.

  “Audrey, get on!” Logan commanded.

  “But Bear—”

  “That’s bear.”

  “Yes, I know, some weird mutant bear, but where’s my Bear?”

  Logan grasped my shoulders and shook—hard. He pointed to the giant grizzly. The beast nodded. I stared, not putting together the pieces.

  With a frustrated huff, Logan picked me up and threw me over his shoulder fireman-style before taking a leap and landing on the back of the bear. “Find them,” was all he said, and the beast started running. Logan set me astride the grizzly in front of him while we barreled down the street. He took my hand and fisted it in the fur of the creature below us.

  I recognized this texture—softer than it should have been.

  Not a bear’s fur, but my Bear’s fur.

  “You get it?” he yelled in my ear.

  I nodded, then shook my head. I had always assumed Bear was a pacifist.

  “I’ll explain it later. Right now, we have to take care of your family.”

  How could I have forgotten about them, even if just for a moment? The rain pounded our bodies and the houses flew by, blurred by our speed rather than the rain.

  I twisted my body and neck to look at Logan. Riding atop a giant galloping bear was not conducive to conversation, but I did my best. “Where are they?”

  “We will find them,” was all he said. His gaze held a promise.

  I nodded back and then turned to face forward. The rain and speed obscured the world around us.

  We were out of the neighborhood and Bear ran down the street, dodging cars that couldn’t see us. It was a surprisingly smooth, if surreal, ride.

  A sharp pain in my side reminded me I hadn’t escaped our battle unscathed. I put a hand to the wound and it came up bloody before being quickly washed clean by the rain.

  I couldn’t be worried about my injury right now. Instead, I focused on searching for my parent’s silver car, but the rain and speed made it hard.

  The creature that was once my dog lifted his head slightly and cocked it to the left. That was our only warning before he took a sharp turn.

  So, sharp, in fact, his claws scrambled for purchase on the wet pavement. We slid several feet before changing direction. Logan’s chest slammed into my back as he leaned forward to wrap an arm around me and reached with the other to ground a hand in Bear’s fur.

  Good thing, or I might have flown off of Bear’s back.

  Logan remained where he was, keeping me safe within the cage of his arms. I didn’t have the brainpower to overthink that one.

  The smaller road we’d turned onto was free of traffic and surrounded by woods. Within a short period of time the pavement gave way to packed dirt. Or at least, that’s what it would have been if torrents of water hadn’t been eroding the ground, making it more river than road.

  “No,” I whispered.

  “What is it?”

  “I know where we are. There’s a bridge not too far up ahead. With all this rain the river below must be raging by now. It’s a shortcut Dad likes to take to town.”

  The dragon’s thunderous roar was akin to hearing my worst nightmare edge closer. I could picture it in my mind: the narrowing of the road past the bend, the old one-lane bridge, and my family in their car careening off the side into the angry waters below.

  “No!”

  My horror-filled scream spurred
Bear on, and we rounded the bend just in time to see my fears come true.

  Morgan and the dragon stood apart from each other at the far end of the bridge. The dragon spit something dark into the middle of the road. With all the rain, it was impossible to identify the substance. The car—really just a metal casing protecting my loved ones—moved at a reasonable speed considering the storm, but once they hit the spot in the middle of the bridge where the dragon had spat, they started to spin out.

  And we were too far away. We wouldn’t make it to them in time.

  Bear bellowed and before I even knew what happened, I flew through the air.

  Logan took the brunt of the impact, but it still hurt. We’d landed in some wet and muddy foliage off to the side of the road right before the bridge and rolled for several feet before stopping.

  I scrambled to my feet in time to see Bear ram into the car before it had a chance to smash the guardrail. His big body acted as a buffer. The car did a few more spins before coming to an anticlimactic stop.

  The side where Bear had rammed it was dented, as was the guardrail. My big monster of a bear-dog lay between the two on the rain-soaked concrete, not moving.

  My feet pounded the ground as I sprinted in the direction of the wreck. I reached Bear first. His breaths were labored, but he was still breathing. A gash in his side—almost a foot long—oozed blood where he’d hit the guardrail. His enormous head lifted for a moment, and I looked into his pain-filled but clear eyes.

  And then a ginormous tongue came out and licked the whole right side of my face.

  Oh, nasty.

  The golden beast in front of me made noises as if he were snickering at me. Okay, he was hurt, but if he still retained his personality, it couldn’t be as bad as I feared. I quickly hugged his scary muzzle and turned to check on my family.

  The car sat cockeyed in the middle of the bridge, right beyond a patch of black goo. I dashed past the substance, giving it only a cursory glance on my way to the car. The windshield wipers were still going furiously. They allowed me an unfettered view of the family members inside.

  For the first time that day I breathed a sigh of relief. Dad was on his phone, most likely with the police, while Mom was turned in her seat, talking to my brother. James had been sitting on the opposite side of the damaged part of the car. As I watched, he unbuckled his seat belt and slid to the center seat, setting a hand on top of my mom’s in a gesture of comfort. I couldn’t hear them, but they all appeared unharmed. At least physically. The warm trickle of blood down my side and the throbbing of my head reminded me I wasn’t so fortunate.

  Muffled shouting drew my attention away from the car and up the road. Adrenaline shot through my body.

  I skirted the car to stand at the back bumper and reached behind me to pull my sword free. The rain was no match for the fire that blazed from it.

  Thirty feet in front of me, Logan and Morgan squared off with their weapons drawn. If possible, the rain came down even harder, creating a veil of water between them and myself.

  Their body language told me everything I couldn’t hear above the rain and the river. It was only a matter of time before they exploded into action.

  A chill skated down my spine when I realized something was missing. A very large something. A red and scaly something.

  Ungluing my eyes from Logan and Morgan, I searched the sky for the dragon. Rainwater blinded me. It was like trying to see while someone steadily dumped a glass of water in my face.

  I snuck a glance back at the guys to see Logan shake his head once and slash his arm through the air in a gesture that said he was done with their conversation. But instead of charging on Morgan, he turned his back and took swift and determined steps toward me, a hard look on his face.

  Sirens wailed faintly in the distance. Could the battle possibly be over? Could we have won this round?

  No sooner were the thoughts formed in my head, then I was running screaming toward Logan as Morgan’s mace arced through the air from behind him, sure to land a blow. Logan spun around and pulled his blade, but I didn’t see the outcome, for the moment Logan turned I was yanked into the sky.

  This wasn’t over. It was far from over.

  13

  A Deal with the Devil

  Bony fingers tipped with razor-sharp claws wrapped around my chest like a vise, cutting off my ability to scream. My hair whipped around my face, obstructing my view of the ground as my body shot straight up into the air. I gulped for breath. Fear, speed, and immobility made it hard to get in enough to keep from passing out. The air around me grew colder as we ascended. I tried to look up, but the angle made that impossible. My view was filled with hair and sky.

  We banked sharply to the left, and the flesh and bones constraining me tightened further. Lights blinked in my vision. I was going to lose consciousness. The wind howled in my ears, and as suddenly as I had been plucked from the Earth’s surface, I was hurling straight back toward it.

  This time an overabundance of oxygen stole my scream as I flailed in a free fall. The terror was so overpowering I grappled with the air as if I could find purchase to stop my descent. My body spun on a topsy-turvy axis. The ground and sky blurred to smudges of color that flashed by like a kaleidoscope.

  The claws surrounded my torso once again a moment before a violent jerk that cracked a few ribs and halted my plummet. My head whipped forward, followed by a painful pop at the base of my skull. My vision blurred in and out of focus as we neared the ground at a leisurely pace.

  Ten feet up, the dragon dropped me unceremoniously to the ground. I crumpled and rolled after the initial impact, stabbed with pain. The earth shook a moment later.

  When my brain caught up enough to take stock, it was the contrast of pain and coolness that first seeped through. I lay like a rag doll, face down on spongy grass. The rain had stopped, but my clothes and hair and skin were soaked bone-deep. With every breath, I sucked in mud along with air. I turned to the side and hacked up what I’d unwillingly ingested. Sharp pains came from multiple spots around my rib cage as well as the back of my neck.

  I felt like a squeezed tube of toothpaste.

  My legs were tangled up in each other, twisted in a weird pretzel position. Both arms were flipped behind me like limp, featherless wings. I whimpered as I forced myself to my back. The sky above spun. My stomach rolled and I turned on my side just in time to throw up on the ground instead of myself.

  “I must sssay, I did expect a little more fortitude.”

  With a cry I sat up as much as I was able and crab-walked away from the voice. When I looked up I wished I hadn’t, for the red beast itself stood over me, glaring down with unveiled disgust. At least what I perceived it to be, having never had the opportunity to study a dragon’s facial expressions before.

  “You can talk?”

  “Obvioussssly.”

  Its forked tongue caused its words to hiss in a cartoonish manner. It’d be funny if I wasn’t so terrified.

  “Wh-what am I doing here?”

  “I thought it wassss time we had another little chat, you and I.”

  I couldn’t be sure, but I thought the beast was smirking at me.

  “Another?”

  “Ah yesss. Let me ssslip into sssomething more comfortable.”

  Shadows, like living beings, crawled out of the ground and slithered their way up the red scales. When the monster was completely shrouded in darkness, the popping and crunching of bones and muscles rearranging themselves assaulted my ears.

  The dragon bent its neck and covered its body with its massive wings as it began to shrink. The wings hid most of the transformation from my eyes until they, too, became shadows, darkening the form they concealed within.

  And then the shadow wings spread and folded, revealing a being I’d hoped never to lay eyes on again.

  A fathomless abyss stared back at me from where its eyes should have been.

  “Ah, I see you finally recognize me.”

  The fear that
should have rushed my system when I’d first met Satan hit with a vengeance this time around. At our first introduction, I’d confused him with an angel of light, rather than seeing the abomination he truly was. He was back to looking all too angelic now, for through the fear, I was still struck by his unmistakable beauty, even despite his blackened pits for eyes.

  He reminded me of the marble busts in museums—perfectly formed, symmetrical and polished, but utterly cold and lacking humanity.

  He took a step back and leaned casually against the trunk of a tree. He wasn’t absently playing with a knife this time. Instead, I was the plaything he toyed with.

  I took stock of my surroundings. He’d flown me to a clearing, perhaps in the same forest, but since I didn’t recognize it, I had no way of telling. I was half-sitting, half-lying in muddy grass and dead leaves. So early in the season the trees around us were still bare of leaves, gnarled and dead rather than teaming with vibrant life. A strange part of my brain accepted this as a perfect spot to have a chat with the devil.

  “Why am I here?”

  Without a change in facial expression, he cocked his head in an almost birdlike manner.

  Creepy.

  “I don’t intend to hurt you, if that is what you are thinking.”

  “You don’t intend to hurt me? You almost squeezed my guts out and then dropped me from the sky!”

  This time he did smirk. “Well, yes, that was just for a little fun. So few things amuse me these days.”

  “You dropped me simply because it amused you?”

  Any levity immediately dissolved. I half-expected him to hiss again.

  “Yes, my little huntress. I care not what you’ve heard of me, but know that I am the ruler of the air and sky. I am what rules this realm, and you are but a trespasser in it. Should it amuse me to drop you from the sky again, don’t doubt I will do it.”

  My heartbeat picked up. I didn’t doubt him.

  “But,” his posture changed to one of bored indifference as he leaned back against the trunk of a nearby tree, “my current plans are not to cause you harm, but rather to offer you a deal.”